Christine Richardson clutched a tattered blue folder to her breast as she sat in a private room at the courthouse and listened to a prosecutor raise doubts about proceeding with the trial of the man who killed her 7-year-old grandson.

Ms. Richardson and her family had waited almost five years for justice in the death of little Nate Turner, who became yet another sad, senseless statistic when he was fatally beaten by his own father in 2009. On Monday, jury selection was almost done in Worcester Superior Court when Senior First Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett revealed that his office might accept a plea bargain for the boy's killer, Leslie "Bird" Schuler.

While relatives protested and begged Bennett to proceed with the trial, Ms. Richardson walked over to the prosecutor and took the empty seat next to him. Then she opened the folder.

Inside were drawings, poems, pictures and straight-A schoolwork completed by Nate in the months before he died, before he left the Alabama home he shared with his grandmother to spend the summer in Worcester with the father he never knew.

"I will go hunting," the boy wrote on one paper. "We will go to the beach. We will go to the movies."

Bennett dutifully flipped through the folder and said he would think about the plea. The next day, however, just as the long-awaited trial was set to start, Schuler was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder.

Today, as they prepare to convey the depth of their loss at Schuler's sentencing, the women who loved Nate Turner are heartsick and angry. Some had attended every pretrial conference and hearing since 2009. Ms. Richardson had flown to Worcester from Eufaula, Ala., to attend the trial. They were assured that the doomed little boy with the dimples and beaming smile would have his day in court.

"Instead, they've treated him like he was a piece of paper," Ms. Richardson said. "We wanted a trial and we would have accepted what the jury decided. We wanted to fight for Nate."

Prosecutors said Schuler began "disciplining" the boy shortly after he came to Worcester. He took him off his medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; later, he hit him and pushed him into a wall. On Father's Day 2009, Schuler grabbed him by the neck, knocked him off a chair and caused him to hit his head. An autopsy would determine that the youngster died of blunt force trauma to the head and torso.

Given the severity of the beating over a period of days, Schuler was charged with first-degree murder and had been incarcerated while awaiting trial. But Bennett told the family that the case against Schuler wasn't "airtight" and that Schuler's girlfriend, who was to testify against him, wasn't a solid witness.

The family is especially upset because they say the girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, was offered leniency in exchange for her testimony. She awaits trial on child endangerment and accessory charges.

On Tuesday, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said the plea deal was made "in the best interest of justice," but he declined to be specific.

"Ultimately, we're the prosecutors and the lawyers who try these cases," Early said. "Often, it's a very hard call. I can't diminish the family's feelings. I can only imagine what their grief is, but I got elected to make tough calls and these are tough calls."

Nate skirted death at just 9 months old, when a fire swept through his family's Worcester apartment in 2002 and claimed the life of his 3-year-old brother. Alicia Turner, his mother, battled mental health issues and allowed her mother to raise Nate, but she remained in the boy's life. On Tuesday, she said she spoke to her son daily while he was in Worcester, but when she hadn't heard from him in two days, she called the state Department of Children and Families and even went to police headquarters. By then, essentially, it was too late.

"This has been torment," said Ms. Turner, 32. "I'm done with the system. They said they'd take my family's feelings into consideration. We've waited almost five years for absolutely nothing."

Under the plea deal, Schuler can seek parole in about 10 years because he'll likely get credit for time served while awaiting trial. Early stressed that parole boards rarely grant freedom at the first hearing under such circumstances, but that assurance does little to placate the family.

Instead, they sift through his blue folder and smile at the boy posed proudly before the peach tree he planted in his grandmother's yard. They remember his joy when he learned that a plastic swimming pool would be waiting for him when he returned to his home in Alabama.

And in the final, haunting image of the grandson she adored, Ms. Richardson remembers Nate sitting happily in her front room, small black suitcase in hand, staring impatiently out the window for the father who would take him to Worcester, and ultimately end his life.

"Nate was glowing that day," Ms. Richardson said. "He couldn't wait to meet his dad and he was telling all his friends, 'I got a dad, too!' " She paused. "He was such a good little boy. But he had no chance."